


I'll Always Be With You

by JenniM777



Series: Klance AU Month [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-02-06
Packaged: 2019-10-23 14:26:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17685191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JenniM777/pseuds/JenniM777
Summary: Prompt: Klance AU Month - day 6 Supernatural





	I'll Always Be With You

**Author's Note:**

> This is a continuation of the roommates prompt but set several years after. 
> 
> Also I'm sorry....please don't hate me for this one.

Keith walked out of the stark white room. The sterile smell of disinfectant burning his nose and lungs, voices calling out to him but he kept walking.  He pushed past someone holding a clipboard asking about organ donors or something but he just walked blindly. He barely registered the white hall and the bright lights, he didn’t listen to the harsh voice telling him he was in a restricted area as EMTs barreled through with someone on a stretcher yelling out codes and stats, he walked past the ambulance at the emergency entrance ignoring the flash of red and blue lights.

Allura found him hours later. He had waded out into the water up to his waste and stared at the sky. He had screamed and cried and raged until he had nothing but tears. Those tears now tracked his cheeks along with the spray of salt water as he kept his face tilted towards the stars.

He didn’t fight as Allura took his hand and led him out of the water. He didn’t argue as she led him into the bathroom and made him strip out of his wet clothes into dry sweats and t-shirt. He let her pull him onto the worn-out couch with a blanket around his shoulders and pulled him into her arms and rocked him gently. He hadn’t realized he was cold until he couldn’t stop shivering even in the warmth of the house.  His whole body shook, either from cold or shock, possibly both. But Allura never let go. She held him and whispered soft words and pressed her lips into his tangled hair, “Shiro and Adam are on their way. I’m here Keith. I’m not going anywhere. You won’t be alone.”

  
He didn’t sleep but sometime during the long hours Allura had shifted them to where Keith had his head resting on her lap slowly undoing the knots in his hair, running a hand across his forehead, always touching never letting him go. He didn’t move except to blink as more tears fell from his eyes. There was a soft jingle of keys at the door and Keith didn’t even register moving but he found himself half way across the room and in the arms of Adam. Shiro was there as well, wrapping arms around both of them and Keith let them hold him, let their strength support him because he had nothing left in him anymore.

 

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

Keith blinked and sat up in bed. He listened but didn’t hear anything except the waves just outside his window. He layed back down and only seconds later he sat back up. There was no unusual noise, just the need to be awake. He stood up and moved to sit in the window sill when he felt it, it being a breeze from just behind him that carried the sun and sand. He didn’t turn around, just waited. He closed his eyes and breathed in the familiar smell and clenched his fists, “You’re not really here.”

There was a soft whisper of something and it was as if Keith could feel the warmth of a hand over his heart. He placed his own hand there and felt nothing. But he swore he heard a voice full of love and laughter and as melodic as the waves outside his window, “I’ll always be with you.”

Keith kept his fist over his heart and gripped his shirt and shook with silent sobs unable to go back to sleep for the rest of the night.

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

Keith was numb. Adam was driving and he was staring out the window watching the scenery passing by. His eyes burned as he watched place after familiar place slip by in a blur. He saw the coffee shop that Lance insisted had the best muffins, he saw the restaurant he and Lance ate at just three months ago for their anniversary, he saw the park that Lance had taken him to when he proposed. He looked down at the small bag in his hand from the hospital, inside was a wallet, a watch and a small gold band. Keith put his head in his hand and couldn’t stop the flow of tears as held the few belongings of Lance’s that they gave him after sending his body to the funeral home. There was no talking, only Adam’s hand resting on Keith’s head offering what little comfort he could while he drove.

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

Keith sat up again for the second night in a row and listened. Again there was nothing except the gentle crash of waves and a soft breeze ruffling the curtains. He didn’t try to lay down again, this time he instantly went to the window and waited. Just as before there was the familiar smell and the warm breeze coming from behind him. This time Keith turned to look behind him and gasped. He had to be dreaming or hallucinating or finally going crazy. Standing there as if he had never left was Lance. Keith reached out a hand but there was nothing to touch. But yet there he was, his beautiful smile, those blue eyes the color of the water just outside their house, that golden brown skin covered in a constellation of freckles, his beautiful Lance.

His body shook with sobs but he couldn’t bear to look away, couldn’t stand the thought that if he moved or blinked Lance would be gone. Lance placed his hand over Keith’s heart just like the night before, and even though his lips didn’t move it was like Keith could feel the words inside of him, “I’ll always be with you.”  
  


He woke up in his own bed with no recollection of moving away from the window last night.

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

The funeral was somber but beautiful in a way that celebrated everything about Lance. Keith sat up front, Lance’s mom on one side, Shiro and Adam on the other. He stayed long after everything was over just sitting in the same chair long after the casket was lowered into the ground, long after everyone else left, but he couldn’t leave. His eyes were closed but he felt the shift in the wind and the soft smell of salt water even though they were miles away from the beach. He felt the wind lift his bangs like fingertips on his forehead just like every time Lance would hold him and push his hair from his face. He felt a warmth like lips on his forehead and that same voice, “I’ll always be with you.”  
  


~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

Years later Keith still missed Lance. When the ache became too much it was then that he would feel the gentle breeze and hear his voice, the soft reminder that he wasn’t alone, at least not really.  To fill the emptiness Keith volunteered at a small orphanage, something to keep him busy on his days off. The kids were always glad to see him and he left feeling the same warmth that Lance had always left him feeling. But today Keith was contemplating a small boy that had been there for a month. He wouldn’t talk and no one knew his name. Several case workers complained that he was never able to stay in a foster home for very long because he was a trouble child, anger issues, never a good fit with any family.  Keith had probably lost his mind but on a whim he decided to become a foster parent to this young boy.  The case workers, the owners of the orphanage, everyone told him he had lost his mind. But something kept nudging him to take him in.

Keith spent the afternoon talking to Shiro and Adam about their own experiences when they took Keith in. Shiro had said patience was the key, but it was what Adam had told him that stuck with him the most, “Just love him. We didn’t know what we were doing with you but we loved you, and we wanted you to feel the love that had been torn away from you at a young age. Just love him.  Love him the way Lance would love him.”  
  


Three weeks later and Keith had one of the spare rooms converted into a room fit for a five year old. When he finally brought him home it was a huge adjustment. There were screams and tears and tantrums but never any words. Through it all Keith remained patient and constantly focused on Adam’s words, ‘just love him’.  And he did.  When he broke things or got in fights with the other kids at his school, when he bit and kicked at Keith, Keith would just wrap him in his arms and hold him and sing to him. At night before putting him to sleep he would play a guessing game. He would rattle off a list of names trying to guess the little boy’s name. Some days he would just glare or ignore Keith, other days he would giggle softly at some of the more outlandish guesses. But everyone was a small shake of his head, a dismissal, the wrong answer.

Keith also enrolled the two of them in a sign language course.  After many doctors' visits, nothing was found to be wrong with his hearing or his vocal chords. One doctor, a gentle bear of a man named Hunk had told Keith that there was probably some hidden trauma or anxiety from being in the foster system that caused him to not talk. He was the one to suggest sign language as a way of communicating. And it worked.

Two months after beginning their sign language lessons, Keith found  the young boy staring at a picture. He made a few motions with his hands and Keith picked him up and settled him on his hip picking the picture up, “That was my husband. Have I never showed you his picture?”

Another wave of his hands, “His name was Lance.”

There was a small gasp and Keith watched as small hands gently took the picture and stared and stared. He looked up at Keith with wet lashes and a voice so small finally broke through for the first time in months, “we have the same name.”

  
Keith managed to keep his composure and not startle the boy he had started to love as his own. He kept his voice neutral as if he was having a normal conversation and hadn’t spoken for to him for the first time, “Your name is Lance?”

Big blue eyes looked at Keith and he nodded. Keith smiled, “well I was just looking for you to ask you a very important question. But first, it is very nice to meet you Lance.”

The little boy, Lance, just smiled at Keith and tucked his head into Keith’s neck. Keith shifted him a bit until he looked back up, “I was wondering, Lance, how you feel about me adopting you.”

  
Lance’s eyes were big and he began to tremble. He nodded his head and wrapped small arms around Keith’s neck. Keith just smiled as he felt a warm breeze even though there were no open windows. There was a crushing warmth that enveloped Keith from head to toe and that soft voice one final time, “I’ll always be with you.”


End file.
